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Topic · Literature and Literary Theory

French Literature and Criticism

French Literature and Criticism is a research topic within Literature and Literary Theory. Science Explorer counts 7.5k research works in it since 1950. 10.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to French literature, culture, and intellectual history. It includes discussions on autobiography, psychoanalysis, colonial history, feminism, surrealism, ethnography, philosophy, and gender studies within the context of French literature and culture. The papers explore various literary works, historical events, and cultural phenomena in France, offering diverse perspectives on the intersection of literature with psychology, sociology, and history.

  • French Literature
  • Cultural Studies
  • Autobiography
  • Psychoanalysis
  • Colonial History
  • Feminism
  • Surrealism
  • Ethnography
  • Philosophy
  • Gender Studies
Research works
7.5k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
812
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
France
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
French Literature and Criticism

Which countries lead French Literature and Criticism research?

By volume, France and the United States publish the most (357 and 198 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 France 357 works
  2. 2 United States 198 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 134 works
  4. 4 Canada 54 works
  5. 5 Germany 52 works
  6. 6 Italy 37 works
  7. 7 Brazil 35 works
  8. 8 Russia 30 works
  9. 9 Poland 28 works
  10. 10 Spain 25 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

France: 37.6%United States: 20.9%United Kingdom: 14.1%Canada: 5.7%6 others listed: 21.7%38%largest
France357 · 37.6%United States198 · 20.9%United Kingdom134 · 14.1%Canada54 · 5.7%6 others listed206 · 21.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead French Literature and Criticism research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most French Literature and Criticism research, followed by University of Oxford and Sorbonne Université.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 64 works
  2. 2 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 24 works
  3. 3 Sorbonne UniversitéFrance 20 works
  4. 4 Université de LyonFrance 19 works
  5. 5 Université Sorbonne NouvelleFrance 15 works
  6. 6 Université Toulouse - Jean JaurèsFrance 14 works
  7. 7 Université de StrasbourgFrance 13 works
  8. 8 Université Grenoble AlpesFrance 13 works
  9. 9 Université Paris NanterreFrance 12 works
  10. 10 Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 11 works

Who are the leading researchers in French Literature and Criticism?

The most-cited researchers publishing on French Literature and Criticism include Pierre Bourdıeu, Michel Foucault and Claude Leroy.

  1. 1 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  2. 2 Michel Foucault France 208k citations
  3. 3 Claude Leroy Canada 132k citations
  4. 4 D. G. Charlton Israel 130k citations
  5. 5 Bruno Latour France 129k citations
  6. 6 Judith Butler United States 116k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in French Literature and Criticism?

The most cited paper in French Literature and Criticism is "Die Ordnung des Diskurses" (Michael Sellhoff, 2014), with 509 citations. Next come "Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal" (215) and "Thinking about silence" (199).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Die Ordnung des Diskurses Michael Sellhoff · J.B. Metzler eBooks Book chapter 2014 509
2 Somaesthetics: A Disciplinary Proposal Richard M. Shusterman · Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1999 215
3 Thinking about silence Jay Winter · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 25 Feb 2010 199
4 The Flâneur and the Aesthetic Mary Gluck · Theory Culture & Society Oct 2003 122
5 NON-CŒLIAC GLUTEN SENSITIVITY? Anthony Ellis, B D Linaker · The Lancet Jun 1978 115
All 101 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is French Literature and Criticism research done?

The largest centres of French Literature and Criticism research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Lyon (France), Oxford (United Kingdom) and London (United Kingdom). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Lyon and Oxford.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 110 works
  2. 2 LyonFrance 30 works
  3. 3 OxfordUnited Kingdom 26 works
  4. 4 LondonUnited Kingdom 21 works
  5. 5 ToulouseFrance 18 works
  6. 6 New YorkUnited States 14 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 14 works
  8. 8 StrasbourgFrance 13 works
  9. 9 NanterreFrance 13 works
  10. 10 Saint-Martin-d'HèresFrance 12 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LyonFR · 29.9 works28×
  2. OxfordGB · 26.2 works12×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in French Literature and Criticism than the world average.

See French Literature and Criticism on the map

Where is the best place to study French Literature and Criticism?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Oxford, Sorbonne Université and Université de Lyon score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 10.49%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Durham UniversityUniversity of OxfordUniversité de LyonSorbonne Université
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 100.012.5%16.6×24 +115.6%
2Sorbonne UniversitéFrance 74.39.2%27.5×20 +11.7%
3Université de LyonFrance 74.29.3%27.8×19 +32.3%
4Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom 73.219.6%29.6×11 +47.6%
5University of TorontoCanada 56.213.5%4.2×9 +125.8%
6Université Paris NanterreFrance 54.911.8%57.9×12 +20.1%
7University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 54.59.3%6.4×8 -28.6%
8Université Grenoble AlpesFrance 52.15.3%25.8×13 +45.0%
9Université Paris CitéFrance 49.58.0%12.4×10 +19.8%
10Université Sorbonne NouvelleFrance 46.36.4%117.4×15 +2.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in French Literature and Criticism, country by country

Is French Literature and Criticism research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2022.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is French Literature and Criticism as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0045% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%French Literature and Criticism0.0041% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of French Literature and Criticism over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting10%20%French Literature and Criticism9.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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